The construction of a dental restoration on what are referred to as osseointegrated implants requires the articulation of maxillary and mandibular casts. In most cases involving several missing teeth this is accomplished by means of one or more occlusal registrations with a wax or elastomeric material and, possibly, a facebow recording with a bitefork.
At present, there is no component or device available which is specifically designed to support the occlusal registration material or facebow bitefork over the area containing the implants. The current practice is to use a component designed for another purpose, such as an impression coping, which may not be of satisfactory size, particularly in relation to its height or length, for a particular situation. An alternative is to construct a custom-made platform, which is a time-consuming procedure.